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ModevEast Recap – Lean in the Enterprise and How to Build Cross-Platform Video Products

Last month, Pete Erickson and the Modev team held the 3rd annual ModevEast conference at Gannett headquarters in McLean, VA. The 3Pillar team turned out en masse, with 15 strong descending on the home of USA Today for 2 days worth of workshops and panels that focused on mobile development, user experience and design, and marketing & monetization.

3Pillar’s Director of Product Management, Dan Klaussen (below right), presented at the conference on both Thursday and Friday alongside partners in crime Geoff Bishop (below left) of Modus Create and Matt McManus (below middle) of PBS. The three have the distinction of having shepherded PBS’ award-winning digital products through the product development life cycle at various points in time from 2009 to the present.

Dan worked with PBS to bring their original iPad application to market before handing off product management duties to Geoff, who as PBS’ in-house Product Manager for digital experiences worked to create a hybrid web solution that would later prove capable of delivering PBS content to Roku, Boxee, Apple TV, and more. Matt, who currently serves as PBS’ Senior Product Manager of Web, Mobile, and over-the-top (OTT), has overseen launches of PBS’ digital products for Apple TV, Roku, and XBox. He also manages the PBS responsive video portal and the PBS iPhone and iPad apps.

On Thursday at ModevEast, the trio drew on their experiences at PBS to give a presentation titled Mission: Impossible – Introducing Lean & Intrapreneurship in the Enterprise. The presentation covers how to introduce lean practices and agile development methodologies, which tend to be more closely associated to start-up culture than corporate culture, in large corporations. Among their recommendations? Recruit a team of assassins, keep your friends close and your enemies closer, and choose the right weapons. For more on how to become the intrapreneur in your organization, please see the embedded presentation or video below.

On Friday, Dan, Geoff, and Matt took center stage at the show in a panel discussion hosted by Lauren deLisa Coleman to talk about critical decisions that have been made by PBS over the last four years that have helped them establish a dominant position today in the digital entertainment space.

Just a few stats that display how wildly successful PBS has been with their various video distribution properties:

There were more than 326 million video views across web, mobile, and connected device platforms in the US in October 2013

There have been more than 10.8 million downloads of the PBS and PBS Kids iPad apps combined

Big thanks to Pete Erickson, Jaimey Walking Bear, Lauren deLisa Coleman, and the rest of the crew at ModevEast for putting on a great event. Thanks as well to Dan Klaussen, Geoff Bishop, and Matt McManus for giving informative, engaging presentations not one, but two days at ModevEast!

Will Sherlin

Senior Manager of Digital Marketing

Will Sherlin is the Senior Manager of Digital Marketing at 3Pillar Global. He oversees the 3Pillar website and other web properties, hosts 3Pillar’s ‘Innovation Engine’ podcast, and manages 3Pillar’s social media accounts. Prior to its acquisition by 3Pillar, Will was an Account Manager at PointAbout, a DC-based mobile app boutique that specialized in developing iPhone and iPad apps. He holds a BA in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina.